that's to be followed by a foreign policy debate at lynn university in boca raton, florida, on october 22. the vice president shall debate will be held october 11 at center college in danville, kentucky. heading into the series, the latest polls show that nationally the obama-romney race is still close. but the president is moving ahead in most of the battle ground states. to get a sense of where the race stands, and what each campaign believes the candidates must do in those debates, we're joined by our regular duo, stuart rothenberg of the "rothenberg political report" and "roll call," and susan page, washington bureau chief of "u.s.a. today." welcome back to both of you. >> good to be here. woodruff: we just reported again, stu, nationally the race looks pretty close but in the battle ground states the president seems to have lead. what do you make of all that? >> that's exactly the case. national numbers show obama leading by two to four points. some polls have it it a little bit more. it's in the swing states particularly critical ohio where the obama lead appears to be four- to e